Jimi Hendrix never wrote an autobiography in his short life, but a friend who produced some of the late guitarist's work has created something eerily close.

The new book, "Starting at Zero" which Bloomsbury Press published on Nov. 5, is an unusual literary experiment: a chronological account of Hendrix's life told exclusively in his own words, painstakingly researched over two decades.

"I was born in Seattle, Washington USA on November 27th 1942 at the age of zero," the book begins. What follows is a breezy 256 pages that ends just before his drug-induced death in London in 1970, when he was 27 and living in New York City.

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Alan Douglas, a friend and producer of Jimi Hendrix, who collaborated on a new book about the guitarist using Hendrix's own words.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY for The Wall Street Journal

Alan Douglas, the Hendrix friend and producer who for years controlled the Hendrix estate's creative output, joined with Peter Neal, a filmmaker and writer, and Michael Fairchild, a researcher and Hendrix authority, to create the book. Its pages carry illustrations of Hendrix by Bill Sienkiewicz, a Marvel Entertainment artist.

The men pieced together Hendrix's life like a jigsaw puzzle, through letters he wrote to family and friends, scraps of paper and hotel stationary on which the guitarist scribbled his thoughts and autobiographical song lyrics. They also culled his thoughts from hundreds of magazines, newspapers, books and videos. The result is a first-person narrative with no footnotes or references to the original documents.

"There's a community of people who obsessively collect Hendrix material and send it to each other around the world," said the Paris-based Mr. Douglas during a recent visit to New York City. "Consequently, there's an incredible amount of information available."

Remarkably for a predigital period, "Almost every word Hendrix ever said in his life is available somewhere," he added.

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A image of Jimi Hendrix, drawn by Marvel artist Bill Sienkiewicz, included in the new book 'Starting at Zero.'
Bill Sienkiewicz

The result is an intimate look inside the musician's thoughts, but a sometimes disorienting one for those not intimately familiar with Hendrix lore. In an effort to avoid stamping their own agenda on the book, the authors provided little context to Hendrix's voice. They acknowledge that posthumously piecing together an "autobiography" is itself an act of manipulation, but argue that they treated the material with integrity.

"The man was a visionary and a prophet, and when you read the book, some of the things he said sound more like an 85-year-old Dalai Lama than a 25-year-old high-school dropout," said Ray Rae Goldman, an archivist and Hendrix family friend who helped fact check the book.

"Starting at Zero" was intended to be released in the mid-90s, but a dispute with the Hendrix estate, one of many over the musician's legacy, delayed the project until a court cleared the way last year for Mr. Douglas to complete it and an accompanying documentary he plans to release later. Hendrix Experience LLC, which controls the Hendrix estate, didn't respond to requests for comment.

The book recounts Hendrix's impoverished youth to his Army days to his struggles while playing in obscure clubs for little money across the U.S., sleeping in alleyways and scrapping for food. Hendrix recounts his backup guitar work for Little Richard, The Isley Brothers and Curtis Knight and the Squires.

He travels to London, where he jams with Eric Clapton's band Cream, forms The Jimi Hendrix Experience and curiously watches his fame soar.

"Hendrix had very few friends before he went to England," Mr. Fairchild said. "After he went, the people he was surrounded by were other musicians and business people and hangers on, with whom he had superficial relationships. So, to get to understand what he was really thinking was a really big, scholarly task."

Hendrix describes his triumphant return to America, where he performs at the Monterey Pop Festival, then Woodstock, where Mr. Douglas meets him backstage, and eventually settles on West 12th Street in Manhattan during the last several months of his life. During this period, Mr. Douglas befriends Hendrix, at first through his wife Stella Douglas, who owned a store where Hendrix bought clothes, and then as his producer at Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios.

Hendrix was an avid listener of all kinds of music, and it is thrilling to hear him discuss his contemporaries, such as his appreciation of Paul McCartney or his feeling that Bing Crosby is a better singer than he. He calls Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young "groovy" and says, "I cry sometimes when I hear Otis Redding's stuff." Hendrix discusses influences, such as Bob Dylan, Brian Jones, Muddy Waters and B.B. King.

Toward the book's end, Hendrix alternates between desperation and optimism.

He worries after what turns out to be his last concert, the Open Air Love & Peace Festival in Germany, when his bassist, Billy Cox, leaves the band. "I'm so tired of everything. I lose myself, I can't play anymore. I've been working very hard for three years. I sacrifice part of my soul every time I play," the book quotes Hendrix.

He looks forward to a new chapter in his life and work, with plans to take off six months to study music and to direct "a big band full of competent musicians that I can conduct and write for" and to create "a new form of classical music."

In the book's last passage, Hendrix wonders about whether he'll live to be 28. "I tell you, when I die I'm going to have a jam session," Hendrix writes. "I want people to go wild and freak out. And knowing me, I'm going to get busted at my own funeral."

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